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EMT Heick selected for state award
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · November 09, 2017
“She is definitely someone I would want if I was a patient,” said the paramedic who nominated West Branch Fire Department paramedic Sandy Heick for a top state award.
Heick, a volunteer with WBFD, works full-time with the Johnson County Ambulance Service, and will travel this weekend to Des Moines to receive the Individual Career EMT Award.
“This came as a big surprise to me,” Heick said.
The Iowa Emergency Medical Services Assoc. will present the award at its 28th Annual IEMSA Conference and Trade Show, which runs Nov. 9-11.
WBFD Chief Kevin Stoolman said he considers Heick very deserving of the award.
“She does a lot of stuff for our community and other communities,” he said, like training WBFD staff and teaching CPR and First Aid at area businesses.
JCAS paramedic Catharine Found nominated Heick, with whom she has worked for about three years.
“She’s a very hard worker,” Found said, but also initiates projects outside of work that benefits both local agencies and statewide concerns.
Found said Heick’s efforts to try to get the State of Iowa to recognize EMS as an “essential service,” like fire and police departments, encourages her.
“It’s a very important thing to be fighting,” Found said, because, if successful, would mean state funding and likely coverage by insurance companies.
Heick in May drew state legislators to a WBFD meeting, telling them that 82 percent of calls require EMT services, but only three of 35 volunteers have such training.
Heick also acquired three pet oxygen masks for WBFD earlier this year, which help breathe air into lungs after smoke inhalation or drowning, and did something similar for JCAS, too.
“Now we’ve got them in all the trucks,” Found said. “Sandy does this because she wants to. She’s a cool cat.”
Part of the reason for Heick’s surprise at the IEMSA award came because she nominated another paramedic for the same award. When the phone call came, she said she expected to hear that the person she nominated had won.
Found joked that Heick was mad at her.
“She does not like the spotlight,” Found said. “But she’s been through a lot and she really deserves this.”
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